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The Indian unicorn saga is not just about co-founders with engineering degrees. It is also about those with a non-engineering background. There is no denying that those with engineering backgrounds constitute almost around 85 per cent of the unicorn co-founders in India. Unicorn is a venture with a valuation of more than $1 billion in the start-up ecosystem.
After the analysis of various public platforms, including the websites of some unicorns, nearly 250 names emerged as founders/co-founders. LinkedIn profiles were used to collect details on them. There was no presence in LinkedIn relating to 19 co-founders, and the profiles of 29 did not have basic details.
Among the available LinkedIn profiles, those with commerce education were the toppers in the list of unicorn co-founders with non-engineering background. Nine of the co-founders had their education in commerce subjects with some of them completing their CA.
Four co-founders of unicorns had medical education background (MBBS) and one of them was a former IAS officer. While three of them co-founded unicorns in health-tech sector, one went on to become a co-founder of an education technology unicorn.
One each with background in English, Hotel Management, and Law made it to the list of non-engineering co-founders’ list. There was also a college drop-out in the unicorn makers list.
Computer Science tops
Nearly one-fourth of the co-founders of Indian unicorns had background in computer science and allied subjects. Co-founders from electrical science, electronics and other allied subjects had a share of around 23 per cent, followed by those with mechanical engineering and allied subjects at 13 per cent.
More than 100 co-founders, who were instrumental in cruising the unicorn journey in India, had their degree education from the government institutes such as Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), National Institute of Technology (NIT), and government engineering colleges.
Of the co-founders analysed for the story, nearly 30 had opted for IIT-Delhi for their engineering courses, followed by 18 IIT-Bombay and 16 IIT-Kanpur. Ten each co-founders were from IIT-Kharagpur and IIT-Madras, followed by IIT-Roorkee at nine, and IIT-Varanasi and IIT-Guwahati at three each.
Three of the co-founders had done their PhD from foreign universities. A significant number (36) of co-founders had their master's degree from overseas institutes and universities.
In the case of postgraduate programmes, 14 had their degree from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, eight from IIM-Calcutta, five from IIM-Lucknow, four from IIM-Bengaluru, and one from IIM-Indore.
India’s unicorn makers ranged from the degree batches of 1980-1983 to 2015-2019. The share of post-2000 batches was nearly 58 per cent in the co-founders’ profiles. Of all the batches analysed, the batches of 2003-2007, 2001-2005 and 1997-2001 produced unicorn co-founders in double digits.
CEOs, CTOs
A majority of those analysed had mentioned their designations as co-founders (41.43 per cent) in their LinkedIn profiles. Around 27 per cent mentioned their designations as CEO (chief executive officer) in the unicorns they founded. While 5.98 per cent mentioned their designations as CTO (chief technology officer), 5.18 per cent as COO (chief operating officers) in their unicorns.
Though a majority of the co-founders continue to remain in different positions in the unicorns they formed, nearly 7.5 per cent of them exited the companies they co-founded at different stages of their start-up’s journey.
Women leaders
It is not that unicorn journey is dominated by male co-founders. Women co-founders constitute nearly 8 per cent of the total unicorn co-founders in India. Of the 19 women unicorn co-founders studied here, 16 made their entry as co-founders after 2010.
Double ‘dhamaka’
At least seven co-founders went on to create a second unicorn in their start-up journey. In fact, one of them is a woman co-founder. Both the unicorns of which she is a part of cater to the needs small and medium enterprises and businesses in the country.
Social media
It looks like not many co-founders are interested in social media platforms such as Twitter, though their unicorns have presence in social media space. Nearly 32 per cent of the co-founders mentioned their Twitter handles in their LinkedIn profiles.
PM praises unicorns
India’s century in the start-up ecosystem with the entry of the 100th unicorn on May 5 has been welcomed by all, including the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Today, India’s start-up ecosystem is not limited to just big cities; entrepreneurs are emerging from smaller cities and towns as well. This shows that in India, the one who has an innovative idea, can create wealth,” he said.
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